After the divorce we split up our debts equally. The problem I have is my name is still jointly on some of the accounts she has. My credit is already tarnished from slow pays that occured after our separation but I would like to remove my name completely from the ones that she is responsible for to keep future damage from occuring. Is there a way to do this?

You should immediately do the following:

- Call & write the credit companies and let them know about the divorce and settlement.
- Cancel the credit cards. The account will still be open until paid off but no new charges can be added.
- Call all three credit bureaus and put a fraud alert on your name. This will not allow anyone to open any credit on your SSAN without the credit company contacting you directly.
Also, get a copy of your credit report and put comments in the accounts with the bad reports. You get a copy of your credit report when you initiate a fraud alert.

TransUnion - 800-680-7289
Equifax Credit Information Services - 800-525-6285
Experian - 888-397-3742

They say they will forward to other credit companies but call all three anyway

If your wife were to get new credit & transfer the remaining accounts into them, the old accounts would be paid off and no worries mate!
You could ask her to do this. Be nice and try to convince her of the good it will do for her.
(She establishes credit onher own, not joint.)

Don't tell her you are doing it to keep the bad from happening to you. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

Awesome post. Bookmarking for possible future reference.

Don't forget any regular bills like electricity, phone, gas, cable, automobile payments, insurance. Had a friend who didn't pay some of those and they still show on his record.

And make sure to call the telephone company and get your directory listing changed. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> Do that NOW as about this time, the info usually goes to the printers for the new white pages.

Chris has great info here.
A friend didn't have his X close the accounts, and she continued to run up a joint account (lied ot him about it) and ruined his credit again.

He had trouble refinancing, and the only way to get out was to pay off $10,000 of her incurred debt. The X was so desparate to get out of it that she actually helped and will now forgo child support in order to have the debt paid off.

Protect yourself.